Holidaymakers are being told to prepare for essential maintenance work happening on “one of the busiest” stretches of the M56.
Forming part of an “important” and “essential” wider maintenance project, National Highways will be is resurfacing sections of worn tarmac on both the eastbound and westbound carriageways between Junction 5 at Manchester Airport and Junction 6 at Hale Barns.
Some of the slip roads at junctions 5 and 6, as well as at Junction 4 for Wythenshawe, will also be resurfaced too.
All of the resurfacing and maintenance work – which also includes replacing some bridge joints and traffic detection loops in the road surface – will be done overnight starting from Monday 10 June, and because of the nature of it, occasional carriageway or slip road closures will be put in place while this is carried out.
The working hours will be between 9pm and 5am, or 7am on Saturdays, as according to National Highways, this is when the motorway is “at its quietest”.
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Delays are expected on a ‘busy’ M56 Manchester Airport route as resurfacing work takes place next month / Credit: Albert Bridge | Suhyeon Choi (via Unsplash)
The resurfacing programme includes a full closure of the eastbound carriageway between Junction 7 and Junction 5 en-route to the Airport for five nights from the evening of Monday 17 June to the morning of Saturday 22 June, while a further full closure of the eastbound carriageway between Junction 6 and Junction 4 is scheduled for the nights of Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 June, and Monday 8, Tuesday 9, and Wednesday 10 July.
The eastbound M56 is closed between Junction 6 and Junction 5 on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 June, Monday 24, Tuesday 25, and Wednesday 26 June, and Thursday and Friday 4 and 5 July.
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And finally, two slip road closures affecting journeys to the Airport will also be taking place on the eastbound exit at Junction 5 on Friday 28 June, and the westbound exit at Junction 5 on Wednesday 17 July.
Temporary closures and diversions will be in place from Monday 10 June onwards / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Diversions will, inevitably, be in place on all dates, and motorists heading to the Airport and beyond will be able to use an alternative motorway route during these closures.
Project Manager, Rob Williams, said National Highways is aiming to be “well out of the way” before the start of the school summer holiday period.
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“This is important and routine wear and tear work,” he explained.
“We’re working closely with the airport to ensure they are aware of our timetable and a small number of overnight closures, which will mean drivers needing to leave a little bit of extra time to get to work or check-in for flights.”
Chester Zoo named one of England’s most popular tourist attractions with 1.9m visitors
Emily Sergeant
Congratulations are in order, yet again, for Chester Zoo… as this time its been one of England’s most popular attractions.
Merely months after being named the UK’s best zoo for the second year running, thanks to receiving more than 11,000 ‘excellent’ reviews from TripAdvisor, Chester Zoo has now got itself another prestigious title, as a major VisitEngland (VE) report has ranked it the third most-visited ‘paid for’ attraction in England – and the most visited outside of London.
The national tourist board for England gathered information from a total of 1,373 attractions across the country, and ranked the UK’s biggest charity zoo as the third overall in terms of popularity, with a whopping 1.9 million visitors in 2024 alone.
The Tower of London took top spot with 2.9 million visitors, while the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew was second place with 2.3 million visitors.
When it comes to free attractions, on the other hand, it wad the British Museum that claimed the top spot with 6.5 million visitors, while the Natural History Museum (5.9 million visitors) took second place, and the Tate Modern (4.6 million visitors) got third.
So as you can see, the south and London in particular is a pretty dominating force in England’s tourism industry – which is why it’s even more impressive to see Chester Zoo ranked so highly.
The new VE title also comes after the zoo was recently given £4 million of lottery funding to help ‘transform’ the local environment and restore wildlife habitats across the Cheshire and wider North West region.
Not only that, but if course follows Chester Zoo’s unveiling of its new immersive experience named Heart of Africa, which is the the largest zoo habitat ever created in the UK and is home to 57 iconic African species.
Chester Zoo has been named one of England’s most popular tourist attractions with 1.9m visitors / Credit: Chester Zoo
“As a major international wildlife charity, everything we do is focused on supporting global conservation,” commented Chester Zoo’s Commercial Director, Dom Strange.
“Whether it’s caring for highly-threatened animals and plants, making scientific discoveries, influencing Government environmental policies, impacting the National Curriculum to better connect young people with nature, or our conservation efforts in around 20 countries, we’re fully committed to protecting endangered species for the future.
“But none of this would be possible without our visitors.
“Every person who comes to the zoo for a fun and inspiring day out is helping to fund our vital work, so we want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us and helped us to rank so highly in VisitEngland’s latest report.”
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Travel & Tourism
Ryanair introduces immediate £500 fines for ‘unruly’ passengers
Emily Sergeant
Ryanair is majorly clamping-down on passenger conduct by introducing a new immediate fining system.
In a bid to get onboard conduct to an acceptable level, Europe’s largest budget airline has today confirmed (12 June) that it has introduced a £500 fine for disruptive passengers whose unruly behaviour results in them being offloaded from the aircraft.
The airline – which prides itself on being one of the most ‘punctual’ in the continent – says passengers expect to travel in a ‘comfortable and stress-free environment’ that’s free from ‘unnecessary disruption’ caused by a tiny number of people travelling onboard the aircraft at the same time as them.
Ryanair has introduced immediate £500 fines for ‘unruly’ passengers / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
While it’s no secret that passenger disruption is a problem that’s increasingly affecting the airline industry as a whole, Ryanair says it’s ‘committed’ to tackling unruly behaviour for the benefit of its passengers and crew.
The company intends to continue to pursue disruptive passengers for civil damages, but at a minimum, they will now be issued with a £500 fine immediately.
“It is unacceptable that passengers are made suffer unnecessary disruption because of one unruly passenger’s behaviour,” a Ryanair spokesperson commented as the fines were announced today.
The airline says it’s committed to tackling this for the benefit of its passengers and crew / Credit: Pxhere
“To help ensure that our passengers and crew travel in a comfortable and stress-free environment, without unnecessary disruption caused by a tiny number of unruly passengers, we have introduced a £500 fine, which will be issued to any passengers offloaded from aircraft as a result of their misconduct.
“While these are isolated events which happen across all airlines, disruptive behaviour in such a confined shared space is unacceptable.
Emily Sergeant -
29th May 2024 
